Re-mapping for your rights!

• In Vietnam there is an ongoing process of subtle privatization of forestry land and resources. At this stage the government is trying to ‘reduce’ the extension of the forestry land collectively managed by highland (ethnic minorities) communities in favour of a mechanism that will accelerate the commercial destination of forestry land, Claudio Feo, NPA regional advisor for Southeast-Asia explained.

  NPA partner The Social Political Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) has successfully tried a pilot project mobilizing highland communities from the Hmon minority in the Northern District of Sima Cai, just besides the beautiful Sapa Mountains at the border with China. The Community leaders have produced new and alternative maps proving that their communities manage much more forest land than indicated by the official government maps.

  - Confronted with this new evidence the local government has decided to cancel the official mapping and to re-map the entire area with a broader participation of the communities as well as of SPERI, Feo said.

  – The success of this re-mapping exercise has led four more provinces to open the same revision process. It shows that political mobilization combined with constructive engagement with local government gives results, Feo added.

  One of the big challenges for the growth of Vietnam is the reallocation and the redistribution of its vast natural resources. Liberalizations are leading to the creation of pockets of poverty and inequalities which in turn might undermine both the economic growth and the capacity for the government to guarantee a fair distribution of social and political gain in vast sectors of its population. In particular community, management of forestry land is an important corrective to the danger of privatization of strategic natural resources in a country that is one of the most effected by climate changes.

  Nguồn: Theo NPA 12.3.2012